Title: Trends in family sociology.

POPLINE Document Number: 201488

Author(s):

Huber J
Spitze G

Source citation:

In: Handbook of sociology, [edited by] Neil J. Smelser. Newbury Park, California, Sage Publications, 1988. :425-48.

Abstract:

Except for the industrial era, family sociology has lacked theories that explain world patterns over time. Recent work in historical demography, social history, comparative sociology, and anthropology now suggest how the variables involving food production permit or encourage monogamy, polygamy, and the conjugal or extended family. The stimuli of industrial technology, retirement plans, improved contraceptives, and wives' employment have caused incentives to marry for life and rear children to erode. The economic cement that once bound spouses for life has been replaced by love, a thin glue for a 50 year contract. Current research confirms that since 1960 age at first marriage, divorce, and untraditional household formation are up. Remarriage and fertility are down. These changes pose new questions. Will the division of household labor shift? Will the divorce rate fall, level off, or rise? Can western countries maintain fertility at levels adequate to support their retirement systems? The direct economic benefits of child rearing currently go to the elderly according to their wage-related contributions. The persons who rear the child receive no direct economic benefits. Is child rearing rewarding enough to offset such costs? Does an innate factor drive humans to reproduce regardless of disincentives?

Keywords:

Global
Sociology
Family and Household
Family Characteristics
Parents
Child
Demographic Surveys
Population Dynamics
Fertility
Macroeconomic Factors
Economic Conditions
Marriage
Divorce
Changes
Social Sciences
Family Relationships
Youth
Age Factors
Population Characteristics
Demographic Factors
Population
Economic Factors
Nuptiality
Social Change